The Lloyd Cole Ensemble April 24 2011 – Palma

Last night saw a rare occurrence at the beautifully restored Teatre Principal in Palma, an event in English. The Lloyd Cole Ensemble, a 3 piece, consisting of the man himself on his black and brown guitar (as he put it) accompanied by Matt Cullen - Steel string guitar and banjo along with Mark Schwaber - Nylon and steel string guitar, mandolin.

In what was a very warm theatre the guys came on stage and kicked straight in to the music with a track from his self titled and first solo album but then swiftly followed with a  couple of tracks  from the Commotions days to get everybody in the mood. (Set list published below). A number of tracks from the new album were peppered throughout the evening amongst some haunting renditions of the classics. Beautifully performed versions of Perfect Skin, Rattlesnakes and Forest Fire by this threesome, which were so obviously enjoying not only this concert but the whole of their tour.  Throughout the first half, the charismatic Mr Cole was anxious to sell his latest album Broken Record as he mentioned once or twice that it could be bought outside after the show and that he would be out there signing this and anything else that was brought along, within reason (which he did).

How do you describe the style nowadays, well I’ll best leave it to Lloyd Cole himself - “The Small Ensemble is my new baby blue grass band. No, we're not really blue grass at all, but we do use similar instrumentation. And we're all acoustic.” I’ll just add that they have a totally laid back and relaxed style but that the voice of Lloyd Cole, that we all remember from many years ago is still there, sounding exactly the same, just as good as it’s ever been. 

This was another special night with the guys actually putting together two sets, a rarity at concerts these days. Two sets of close to an hour each time plus the encore. An intimate concert with the lads away, who were just playing Foosball in local bars across Europe, having a good time.

For those of us that live in Mallorca you get used to all the best venues having everything in Catalan, an almost jingoistic viewpoint. Whilst the majority of us agree with the protection of local languages and dialects, when the island consists of around 40% “foreigners” as residents would it not make sense to reflect that in the performing arts. Surely more international artists performing here would help everybody, especially at venues like the Teatre Principal, especially as theoretically 40% of the restoration cost is down to the rest of us. Even to have information given to us in a language we could understand would be a start. This discussion will carry on somewhere else, I’m sure, let’s not detract from what was an excellent concert by The Lloyd Cole Ensemble.

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - book review

Having just spent the last week or so reading the Booker Prize winner of 2003 all I can say is don't bother. This copy was given to me by a friend, well I thought she was a friend.
The story revolves around Texan teenager Vernon and his ensuing mishaps, which find him eventually on death row. A somewhat ridiculous tale with an even more ridiculous ending. It is written in first person style but you are meant to think that the first person is not too clever, this in itself is totally contradictory. The whole book just makes you want to throw it away and I can imagine most readers that picked it up did not even finish it. I am not sure how I managed, it was just the thought that the judges were on to something, but no, I think they were all sleeping that day. I think it's quality shows by the lack of recent works by the same author DBC Pierre. (DBC, what's that all about?)
Apologies now to whoever picks up my copy from the charity shop.

GR221- Esporles to Banyalbufar by foot.

The latest hike was the route GR221, the footpath from Esporles to Banyalbafur, otherwise known as Cami des Correu. This route takes you along the edge of the Tramuntanas on the west coast, through wonderful pine and oak woods with some outstanding glimpses of the sea and at the Banyalbufar end great views over the Moorish cultivation steps. 
Rather than start in Esporles it is a lot easier to use the car park a few kilometres up the hill at La Granja tourist attraction. From here walk up the main road and after approx 100 metres or so the footpath begins on your left.
This path is well marked and would appear to be going through a lot of improvements, especially at this end (at the time of writing). It starts as a cobble path, but note, very large cobbles, and then follows what must be a water course in  wet weather. In areas it can be quite difficult and you have to watch your footing, but don't worry there is no clambering over rocks or such like. The first 20 minutes is quite a steep climb with footing improving after a while to a smooth dirt track. Once you reach the top you enter the oak woods and would expect to hear little, but unfortunately on the day of my walk it was the round island motorbike rally as all you could hear was the constant ning-ning and thump-thump of a thousand Wild Hogs somewhere below negotiating every bend as quickly a they could.
Despite this (slight exaggeration) it was still an extremely pleasant walk and with most of the route in shade, reasonably cool. There is not much in excitement on the route apart from a couple of old charcoal pits and the odd piece of the original road as you start the descent down into Banyalbufar. There are some excellent stopping points to enjoy the views en-route and make it worthwhile taking a snack bag with you if you are not planning to lunch at one end or the other. On reaching Banyalbafur, on this particular Sunday, after listening to the bikes for so long, it was good to see genuine gridlock with all sorts of bikes, classic and normal cars along with the odd tourist bus going nowhere. Get off and walk!  On arrival at this end there are a number of restaurants offering good value menus, even on a Sunday (12or 13€, 3 courses, wine and water).

  

















A lot of the guides seem to infer that this is a fairly easy route but it is worth noting that the climbs at both ends are steep and you do need to be reasonably fit for them. I did both ways at around 2 hours each and my legs felt like they had had a good workout. All in all a very pleasant way to spend a morning walking, just don't do it on the day of the annual motorbike rally! 

A tale of two shoes.

A walk in the hills from Na Burguesa to Costa d’en Blanes.

Sunday 10 April woke to find itself covered in sun, almost a bit too much sun for April but it was a happy day. It was the day of the first organised walk for the Lace ladies along with friends, partners, and dogs. A bit of a trial day for a gang of 8 (plus canines Chiggy and Charlie) including the very experienced Mr. Mallorca Walker, aka Robin. The French Coffee Shop in the Costa d’en Blanes car park was to be the start and finish of the days exertions, providing a good caffeine kick start.

 From here we all climbed into Robin’s van for the drive up to the spectacular monument hovering over Genova with arms outstretched to welcome us. This saved the weaker of us what could have been a hell of a climb. The sun shone whilst we all took in the view of the cosmopolitan city of Palma and the Mediterranean 400 or so metres below us.  From immediately below the monument of Our Lady the walk began passing through the concrete posts into what was yet another piece of military land now thankfully opened to the public. Immediately we were enclosed in the pine woods that are so prolific in Mallorca with the wonderful fresh smell that only they can bring. The party quickly settled into small groups with the more active leading the way up along the well marked stone path, passing flowers of white, purple and yellow and a freshness of greenery that only spring can supply.

After about half an hour of easy but uphill walking we cleared the woods to find ourselves at a junction with impressive views towards the Tramuntana Mountains. It shows the complete contrast of this beautiful island, as within that very short distance we had gone from looking over ½ million people to seeing just pristine scenery with not a building in sight. At this point one of our party had a problem with shoes that had decided they didn’t want to come this far so had been deserting her bit by bit from the start of the walk. A pair of shoes that had not seen the light of day for some time and had decided to disintegrate, giving us all a lesson on check before you leave. Sadly it made more sense for her to return as we had not yet reached the halfway mark and we must thank her for returning the van to Costa d’en Blanes and commiserate with her missing the rest of the walk.

From this first major junction we headed left and then right in a southerly direction and slowly started to glimpse the water of the Mediterranean, sadly a bit too hazy to view the distant island of Cabrera but still a spectacular view from this ridge of mountains that would carry on and spill us back at our starting point before dipping its toes in the water. The vistas were spectacular including the distant refuge on the next mountain to the peak sof the Tramuntanas in the distance. As we progressed along the ridge we were than exposed to the bay of Palmanova and Magaluf beyond, which from this distance looked incredibly inviting and shortly after this appeared the motor yachty paradise of Portals with its thousands of metres of fibre glass brazenly on display. From our position though all we could hear was the sound of the gentle wind and the odd baaa from the wild mountain goats hidden in the shrubbery giving it all a surreal feeling.

After a brief stop for oranges to boost us all we started to descend into civilisation, looking down on the Bendinat tunnel  giving it a Scalextrix perspective rather than the one we are all used to. The walk finished on the back roads of Costa d’en Blanes, through streets of houses and apartments that all seem to have at least one dog that barks. It would appear that all these caged in dogs were jealous of our two companions who had been free to roam in the backhills and were letting us know. We finished back where we started at the French Coffee House for a well earned seat and a caña having enjoyed a three hour round trip that was not too exertive but you knew you had completed a walk in the hills.

Thanks to www.mallorcawalker.com and www.lacenetwork.com for organising what I hope will be the first of many more ambles through Mallorca.